AGAIN!!!! WTF is WRONG with Florida?????

[CatWoman]

Isn't Florida due for a brand new headline grabbing controversy? I mean it's been about a month since Schiavo left the world for greener pastures.

Wait......Wait......... Wait......... Boom...here we go again:

Pregnant and living in a shelter, a 13-year-old Palm Beach County girl is snared in a court fight of national scope after the state's social services agency blocked her attempt to have an abortion.

The legal and political wrangling surrounding the girl intensified Thursday as legislators and advocates weighed in on the case in light of state and federal efforts to pass a parental notification law that would apply to pregnant teens.

State law allows minors to have abortions without notifying their guardians. Experts say the law extends to wards of the state, raising the question of why this girl's decision has ended up before a judge.

Identified in court records simply as L.G., the girl's plans to end her 131/2-week pregnancy were thwarted when her guardian, the state Department of Children & Families, filed an emergency motion in Juvenile Court to prevent the abortion. The American Civil Liberties Union, represented by attorney James K. Green, filed an emergency appeal Wednesday arguing that neither the court nor DCF should be involved in L.G.'s decision.

http://trumad.com/429051030am.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Who's the father? If it's her dad, this is going to be a train wreck.

[SoCalDem]

6. Probably some guy at the shelter..

Kids in public shelters are easy prey:(

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. No, she was a foster child in a group home.

There has been no indication about paternity. More to the point, I haven't seen any outrage as to the paternity. Whether she consented to sex or not is immaterial. The boy or man who impregnated her is guilty of a crime. Why aren't we hearing about the search to prosecute him?

[readmoreoften]

2. Am I reading this right?

Because the state is her guardian the state can stop her from having an abortion? Is this what is going on?

[readmoreoften]

10. Oh crap, I AM reading this right.

Funny, the State of Florida is preventing an abortion (due to legal technicality) of a 13 year old girl because they are her guardians. Actually, not funny.

I was thinking about naming the parent consent laws "the tattletale law". Now I'm thinking about calling it "The State's Right To Choose" law.

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. No what is stranger is that they are claiming a minor does..

not have the capacity to make such a decision.....but she can carry and raise a child??????

[Fenris]

15. That's so f**king unbelievable.

:banghead:

[Pacifist Patriot]

29. Then again, I have no doubt...

They would prohibit her from keeping the baby if that is what she wanted after being forced to carry it.

[ultraist]

21. The State has NO RIGHT taking control over our bodies

Here we go again!

All while in Texas, they are pulling the plug on people against their wishes, in Jebbie land FL, they are using State's powers to control people's bodies.

Sickening.

I wonder if her parents have consented. Even though she is in foster care, the parents still have some say over medical procedures of their children. IF the parents have lost temporary custody that is. If they have had their parental rights terminated, they have no say whatsoever.

[ewagner]

3. I'm still predicting

this will be the next darling of the medai set....

look out, if the ACLU wins this one, the same group of Rapture-crazed fundies who camped outside Shiavo's Hospice will be on the streets again.....

[janx]

22. That was my first thought as well. n/t

[Fenris]

4. Disgusting.

Absolutely sickening.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Ah, compassionate conservatism at work

Yep, force the homeless 13 year old to have the baby 'so that the baby might live'.

Fuck that. Assholes.

Yeah, that baby is gonna have a fuckin' GREAT life. And the 13 year old girl is gonna have a fuckin' GREAT life.

yep, force her to have the baby, then refuse to help her with medical care (and refuse to help with medical care during the pregnancy as well, I'm sure), refuse to help her with babysitting/day care, refuse to help her with everything.

Yep.

That's compassionate conservatism for ya.

Assholes.

[walldude]

7. It's either the heat or the humidity

So here we have a 13 year old kid in the custody of the state, who is going to be forced to carry a child who is going to also be a ward of the state. Brilliant. Yep I see this one exploding in the next few days, the fundies are going to be all over this. Damn I thought I'd get a few weeks without Randall Terry on my TV...

--edit-- Socal, that picture is hilarious...

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. A few links for you...

Miami Herald Poll

http://forums.miami.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=kr-miamiwebvote&tid=604&vote=2&submit=Vote

Story as published in the Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11508044.htm

Yesterday's thread about it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3559586

I live in Florida and I can tell you this is NOT the will of the people. These are self-righteous assholes sticking their noses in where it doesn't belong.

[Straight Shooter]

9. Pickles needs a baby to fill her empty nest.

Let her and Little Boots adopt the child. And let L.G. live in the Monkey Palace until the baby is born. (The question is, could bush pass the test of parental qualifications?)

Or Jeb. Hey, Jeb, what are you and your wife doing these days?

[anarchy1999]

11. Florida has surpassed California in the "fruit and nut" category.

Good God almighty! The state is going to force a 13 year old to give birth to another child? WTF?! I'm sick and leaving DU for the afternoon to run errands.

Jeez, this one is going to haunt me all afternoon and I didn't even click on the link to read the rest of the story. I don't want to even know. My prayers are with this poor kid.

[The Magistrate]

17. It Is, Ma'am, A Ghastly Thing

The ideologues in the state agency and government are committing a monsterous wrong; any judge who granted sided with them is being a colossal idiot; if she was impregnated while under state guardianship her case-worker and the supervisor, at minimum, should be broken to the ranks of the homeless unemployed themselves....

[anarchy1999]

18. Okay, I linked, " brought in by Children's Home Society" Is this a "Faith

Based" group? Just more of the Bush Family Values, No Child Left Behind Initiative?

I'm speechless!

[CornField]

28. The person from Children's Home Society was trying to help her

obtain the abortion. It was DCF (state agency) which then stepped in and said that Children's Home Society was a contract and not an official arm. (In other words, the CHS worker had no authority to oversee the child... even tho we contracted workers from there for that purpose.)

[gumby]

14. This is what happens when the State owns women's bodies.

This is what the right has been fighting for all these years: to make women the property of the State.

Furthermore, forcing a 13 year old to carry this pregnancy endangers her health -- both physically and mentally. This is child abuse, pure and simple.

And to be gross, many dog breeders take more care of the female's health in reproduction than these wack-nuts are capable of.

[anarchy1999]

16. Can you imagine being 13 and pregnant? It boggles my mind.

"...A DCF official said the caseworker involved was not a DCF employee but was brought in by Children's Home Society, which does contract work for DCF.

After a hearing Tuesday,Circuit Judge Ronald V. Alvarez temporarily barred the teen from having an abortion and ordered a psychological evaluation to determine her mental condition and whether she would be harmed by terminating the pregnancy or carrying the fetus to term.

Marilyn Munoz, spokeswoman for the Department of Children & Families, said the agency had no choice but to stop the abortion. She pointed to a Florida statute: "In no case shall the department consent to sterilization, abortion, or termination of life support."

"As a state agency, we have higher standards when it comes to accountability," Munoz said. "We have to follow the law ... We can't consent to it no matter what."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pabortion29apr29,0,4239569.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[Justitia]

19. and homeless, and completely & utterly alone. This is CRUEL. -eom

[peace frog]

20. "Why?" you say...

... why, because baby bro Jebbie is governor, that's why, and his office is giving every assistance to the state agencies preventing the girl from getting the abortion she wants. The ACLU is involved now and is pressing the girl's case in state court.

[anarchy1999]

23. Maybe it's time to make some outraged phone calls? I've got to leave

for a couple of hours but to me this smacks of child abuse, pure and simple! The poor kid wants an abortion, she is 13. For heaven's sake, is there anyone sane involved here besides the ACLU?

[Justitia]

27. I think I read that the area Planned Parenthood is helping too, not sure.

eom

[RubyDuby in GA]

24. Hey Florida! Thanks for being our neighbors - y'all make GA look good!

This is just so wrong. This poor girl's life, which is in shambles already, will be ruined forever because these wingnuts must get their way. Anyone of them lining up to adopt the baby and the girl, who is just a child herself? I didn't think so.......

[ComerPerro]

25. More big govt' interefence with private lives, endorsed by the right

I thought they were against that?

And, if the law says a minor doesn't need notification, on what grounds can they intervene?

[Pockets]

26. The state will probably take the kid too

After the baby is born they'll declare this 13 yr old molestation victim unfit to be a mother and take her child from her.

Nice.

Remember, the RW completely supports all of this.

[CornField]

30. Here's hoping that someone asks DCF how a 13-yr-old girl

got pregnant while she was in their care. Seems to me as if someone either forced her to do something -or- an authorized adult didn't pay close attention to the child.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

31. Privatized social services in the hands of fundamentalists..that's what